Nokia Gets Left Behind As Samsung Becomes The Biggest Global Mobile Phone Manufacturer

The fact that Samsung had already surpassed Nokia in some aspects this year was already known. What has emerged now from a IHS iSuppli research report is that Samsung Mobiles has put Nokia behind in terms of market share on an annual basis. This makes Samsung the biggest mobile manufacturer of mobile phones in the world.

Nokia was number one for the last 14 years. Nokia has fallen very publicly too. The fact that Nokia was in financial trouble since last year was not a secret. However, it placed a big bet to sidle up to Microsoft so that it could then release smartphones with the Windows Phone Os. That strategy has not worked very well for them, as far as recent numbers are concerned.  The future adoption of the revamped ecosystem would trigger growth again for Nokia. In the present however, Nokia is not doing too well as it has been trying to cut costs over the year to operate more efficiently. On the Indian front, the company is facing stiff competition in the smartphone segment from Android (Samsung and others). They recently launched the very affordable Asha 205 phone which is targeted at bringing Internet services to feature phone uses. On the smartphone front, there seems to have been less traction than desired. Currently, the company’s global market share stands at 24%, a 6% drop from the previous 30%. Samsung on the other hand has risen to 29% from a previous market share of 24%.

Samsung has been on a roll this year. After the success of their Galaxy range, the company has embarked into putting out some very powerful phones out there. Their high end ones like Note 2 and Galaxy S3 have been selling well. The part of their strategy which has worked in India is the one where they have customised Android to run on middle range phones that most Indians can afford. The Y series has seen some very affordable and decent phones. The Y series is targeted to the youth and priced very attractively. The M series, which is targeted to enterprise and business people has not seen a significant push yet. On a global front, the divide between Samsung and Apple has increased. Apple’s market share is somewhat stagnant whereas Samsung has increased its smartphone market share to 28% from a previous 20%. Compare this to Apple’s 1% increase from 19% to 20% for 2011-2012.

Other prominent phone companies like HTC and RIM have been struggling this year. HTC has been making losses this year inspite of their spectacular One series of products. RIM’s January 30 BB10 launch will be the only thing that saves it from a nosedive.

Nokia, HTC and RIM will have to step up to the challenge in 2013 otherwise they will be lost.

What are your thoughts on the global players in the mobile phone segment? Share your thoughts with us.

Image Source | cincaitalk

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